Emergency alert representation

ABSTRACT

An emergency alert is received. Information representing a map is generated from emergence alert information identifying an affected area, including a code that identifies a political region and a primitive shape corresponding to the affected area. Customer premises equipment is authenticated and the information representing the map is transmitted for receipt by the customer premises equipment. An indication of a selection of a user-selectable field is received, and in response, a second video stream associated with the emergency and the affected area is transmitted for presentation to customer premises. The first information is displayable as overlay video, providing a map of the affected area and occupying a portion of a display area. The map is displayable together with a user-selectable display field indicating that more information is available in relation to the emergency.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.12/330,046 filed Dec. 8, 2008 by Leonardo Velazquez, entitled “EmergencyAlert Representation.” All sections of the aforementioned applicationare incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates generally to communicating emergencyalerts.

BACKGROUND

Television viewing is part of daily life for many people. The wealth ofcontent available from television service providers allows many peopleto find entertaining and informative programming despite their varyinginterests. As a result, television also provides a source ofcommunication for government officials to provide emergency alerts andinformation. Most emergency alerts pertain to a general geographiclocation within a television viewing area. Because television viewingareas can cover multiple locations, such as multiple counties, manyviewers will receive emergency alerts that do not apply to them. Hence,there is a need for a system and method of communicating emergencyalerts.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration,elements illustrated in the Figures have not necessarily been drawn toscale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements areexaggerated relative to other elements. Embodiments incorporatingteachings of the present disclosure are shown and described with respectto the drawings presented herein, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a particular illustrative embodiment of asystem to communicate emergency alerts,

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a portion of the block diagram of FIG. 1 ingreater detail according to a illustrative embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a particular illustrative embodiment of amethod of communicating emergency alerts;

FIG. 4 is a table representing information associated with an emergencyalert;

FIG. 5 is a political map including geometric shapes;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a particular illustrative embodiment of amethod of communicating emergency alerts;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram of a particular illustrative embodiment of amethod of communicating emergency alerts;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of a particular illustrative embodiment of amethod of communicating emergency alerts; and

FIG. 9 is a diagram of an illustrative embodiment of a general computersystem.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Referring to FIG. 1, an illustrative embodiment of an Internet ProtocolTelevision (IPTV) system that may be used to communicate emergencyalerts is illustrated and is generally designated 100. As shown, thesystem 100 can include a client facing tier 102, an application tier104, an acquisition tier 106, and an operations and management tier 108.Each of tiers 102, 104, and 106 are illustrated as connected to aprivate network 110. Each of tiers 104, 106, and 108 are illustrated asconnected to a public network 112, such as the Internet.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the various tiers 102, 104, 106, and 108communicate with each other via the private network 110 and the publicnetwork 112. For instance, the client-facing tier 102 can communicatewith the application tier 104 and the acquisition tier 106 via theprivate network 110. The application tier 104 can communicate with theacquisition tier 106 via the private network 110. Further, theapplication tier 104 can communicate with the acquisition tier 106 andthe operations and management tier 108 via the public network 112.Moreover, the acquisition tier 106 can communicate with the operationsand management tier 108 via the public network 112. In a particularembodiment, elements of the application tier 104, including, but notlimited to, a client gateway 150, can communicate directly with theclient-facing tier 102.

The client-facing tier 102 represents service provider equipment (SPE)that can communicate with user equipment via an access network 166, suchas an Internet Protocol Television (IPTV) access network. In anillustrative embodiment, customer premises equipment (CPE) includesnetwork access modules 114 and 122 such as a local switch, router, orother device, that interfaces other customer premises equipment to ofthe access network 166. The client-facing tier 102 can communicate witha first representative set-top box device 116 at a first customerpremises via the first network access module 114 and with a secondrepresentative set-top box device 124 at a second customer premises viathe second network access module 122. In a particular embodiment, thenetwork access modules 114 and 122 can communicate with computingdevices at customer premises, such as the computing device 168 coupledto the second network access module 122. The network access modules 114and 122 can include routers, local area network devices, modems, such asdigital subscriber line (DSL) modems, any other suitable devices forfacilitating communication between a set-top box device and the accessnetwork 166, or any combination thereof.

In a particular embodiment, the client-facing tier 102 can be coupled tothe network access modules 114 and 122 via fiber optic cables.Alternatively, the network access modules 114 and 122 can be digitalsubscriber line (DSL) modems that are coupled to one or more networknodes via twisted pairs, and the client-facing tier 102 can be coupledto the network nodes via fiber-optic cables. Each set-top box device 116and 124 can process data received via the access network 166, via anIPTV software platform, such as Microsoft™ TV IPTV Edition.

The first set-top box device 116 can be coupled to a first externaldisplay device, such as a first television monitor 118, and the secondset-top box device 124 can be coupled to a second external displaydevice, such as a second television monitor 126. Moreover, the firstset-top box device 116 can communicate with a first remote control 120,and the second set-top box device 124 can communicate with a secondremote control 128. The set-top box devices 116 and 124 can include:IPTV set-top box devices; video gaming devices or consoles that areadapted to receive IPTV content; personal computers or other computingdevices that are adapted to emulate set-top box device functionalities;any other device adapted to receive IPTV content and transmit data to anIPTV system via an access network; or any combination thereof.

In an exemplary embodiment, each set-top box device 116 and 124 canreceive data, image information, or any combination thereof, from theclient-facing tier 102 via the access network 166, where the imageinformation can be processed for display at the display device 118 and126 to which it is coupled. In an illustrative embodiment, the set-topbox devices 16 and 124 can include tuners that receive and decode imageinformation from television programming signals or packet streams thatis to be transmitted to the display devices 118 and 126. Further, theset-top box devices 116 and 124 can include a STB processor 170 and aSTB memory device 172 that is accessible to the STB processor 170. Inone embodiment, a computer program, such as the STB computer program174, can be embedded within the STB memory device 172.

In an illustrative embodiment, the client-facing tier 102 can include aclient-facing tier (CFT) switch 130 that manages communication betweenthe client-facing tier 102 and the access network 166 and between theclient-facing tier 102 and the private network 110. As illustrated, theCFT switch 130 is coupled to one or more data servers, such as D-servers132, that store, format, encode, replicate, or otherwise manipulate orprepare video content for communication from the client-facing tier 102to the set-top box devices 116 and 124. The CFT switch 130 can also becoupled to a terminal server 134 that provides terminal devices with aconnection point to the private network 110. In a particular embodiment,the CFT switch 130 can be coupled to a video-on-demand (VoD) server 136that stores or provides VoD content imported by the IPTV system 100.

Further, the CFT switch 130 is coupled to one or more video servers 180that receive video content and transmit the content to the set-top boxes116 and 124 via the access network 166. In a particular embodiment, theCFT switch 130 can be coupled to one or more emergency alert system 182that receive emergency alerts from an emergency alert system (EAS)receiver, such as an emergency alert system 184 and a emergency alertsystem 190, and send emergency alert messages that are based on theemergency alerts to the set-top box devices 116 and 124. CFT switch 130includes a channel mapping module 1301, which uniquely identifies eachpacket stream, such as a video stream, being transmitted with a uniqueidentifier.

In an illustrative embodiment, the client-facing tier 102 cancommunicate with a large number of set-top boxes, such as therepresentative set-top boxes 116 and 124 over a wide geographic area,such as a metropolitan area, a viewing area, a statewide area, aregional area, a nationwide area or any other suitable geographic area,market area, or subscriber or customer group that can be supported bynetworking the client-facing tier 102 to numerous set-top box devices.In a particular embodiment, the CFT switch 130, or any portion thereof,can include a multicast router or switch that communicates with multipleset-top box devices via a multicast-enabled network.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the application tier 104 can communicate withboth the private network 110 and the public network 112. The applicationtier 104 can include a first application tier (APP) switch 138 and asecond APP switch 140. In a particular embodiment, the first APP switch138 can be coupled to the second APP switch 140. The first APP switch138 can be coupled to an application server 142 and to an OSS/BSSgateway 144. In a particular embodiment, the application server 142 canprovide applications to the set-top box devices 116 and 124 via theaccess network 166, which enable the set-top box devices 116 and 124 toprovide functions, such as display, messaging, processing of IPTV dataand VoD material, etc. In an illustrative embodiment, the applicationserver 142 can provide location information to the set-top box devices116 and 124. In a particular embodiment, the OSS/BSS gateway 144includes operation systems and support (OSS) data, as well as billingsystems and support (BSS) data. In one embodiment, the OSS/BSS gateway144 can provide or restrict access to an OSS/BSS server 164 that storesoperations and billing systems data.

The second APP switch 140 can be coupled to a domain controller 146 thatprovides Internet access, for example, to users at their computers 168via the public network 112. For example, the domain controller 146 canprovide remote Internet access to IPTV account information, e-mail,personalized Internet services, or other online services via the publicnetwork 112. In addition, the second APP switch 140 can be coupled to asubscriber and system store 148 that includes account information, suchas account information that is associated with users who access the IPTVsystem 100 via the private network 110 or the public network 112. In anillustrative embodiment, the subscriber and system store 148 can storesubscriber or customer data and create subscriber or customer profilesthat are associated with IP addresses of corresponding set-top boxdevices 116 and 124.

In a particular embodiment, the application tier 104 can include aclient gateway 150 that communicates data directly to the client-facingtier 102. In this embodiment, the client gateway 150 can be coupleddirectly to the CFT switch 130. The client gateway 150 can provide useraccess to the private network 110 and the tiers coupled thereto. In anillustrative embodiment, the set-top box devices 116 and 124 can accessthe IPTV system 100 via the access network 166, using informationreceived from the client gateway 150. User devices can access the clientgateway 150 via the access network 166, and the client gateway 150 canallow such devices to access the private network 110 once the devicesare authenticated or verified. Similarly, the client gateway 150 canprevent unauthorized devices, such as hacker computers or stolen set-topbox devices from accessing the private network 110, by denying access tothese devices beyond the access network 166.

For example, when the first representative set-top box device 116accesses the client-facing tier 102 via the access network 166, theclient gateway 150 can verify subscriber information by communicatingwith the subscriber and system store 148 via the private network 110.Further, the client gateway 150 can verify billing information andstatus by communicating with the OSS/BSS gateway 144 via the privatenetwork 110. In one embodiment, the OSS/BSS gateway 144 can transmit aquery via the public network 112 to the OSS/BSS server 164. After theclient gateway 150 confirms subscriber and/or billing information, theclient gateway 150 can allow the set-top box device 116 to access IPTVcontent and VoD content at the client-facing tier 102. If the clientgateway 150 cannot verify subscriber information for the set-top boxdevice 116, e.g., because it is connected to an unauthorized twistedpair, the client gateway 150 can block transmissions to and from theset-top box device 116 beyond the access network 166.

As indicated in FIG. 1, the acquisition tier 106 includes an acquisitiontier (AQT) switch 152 that communicates with the private network 110.The AQT switch 152 can also communicate with the operations andmanagement tier 108 via the public network 112. In a particularembodiment, the AQT switch 152 can be coupled to a live acquisitionserver 154 that receives or acquires television content, movie content,advertisement content, other video content, or any combination thereof,from a broadcast service 156, such as a satellite acquisition system orsatellite head-end office. In a particular embodiment, the liveacquisition server 154 can transmit content to the AQT switch 152, andthe AQT switch 152 can transmit the content to the CFT switch 130 viathe private network 110.

In an illustrative embodiment, content can be transmitted to theD-servers 132, where it can be encoded, formatted, stored, replicated,or otherwise manipulated and prepared for communication from the videoserver(s) 180 to the set-top box devices 116 and 124. The CFT switch 130can receive content from the video server(s) 180 and communicate thecontent to the network access modules 114 and 122 via the access network166. The set-top box devices 116 and 124 can receive the content via thenetwork access modules 114 and 122, and can transmit the content to thetelevision monitors 118 and 126. In an illustrative embodiment, video oraudio portions of the content can be streamed to the set-top box devices116 and 124.

Further, the AQT switch 152 can be coupled to a VoD importer server 158that receives and stores television or movie content received at theacquisition tier 106 and communicates the stored content to the VoDserver 136 at the client-facing tier 102 via the private network 110.Additionally, at the acquisition tier 106, the VoD importer server 158can receive content from one or more VoD sources outside the IPTV system100, such as movie studios and programmers of non-live content. The VoDimporter server 158 can transmit the VoD content to the AQT switch 152,and the AQT switch 152, in turn, can communicate the material to the CFTswitch 130 via the private network 110. The VoD content can be stored atone or more servers, such as the VoD server 136.

When users issue requests for VoD content via the set-top box devices116 and 124, the requests can be transmitted over the access network 166to the VoD server 136, via the CFT switch 130. Upon receiving suchrequests, the VoD server 136 can retrieve the requested VoD content andtransmit the content to the set-top box devices 116,124 across theaccess network 166, via the CFT switch 130. The set-top box devices 116and 124 can transmit the VoD content to the television monitors 118 and126. In an illustrative embodiment, video or audio portions of VoDcontent can be streamed to the set-top box devices 116 and 124.

The AQT switch 152 can be coupled to an emergency alert system 184, suchas an EAS off-air receiver that receives emergency alerts from anational weather service, an emergency broadcast system, or anotheremergency alert service. In an alternative embodiment, the alert system184 can be coupled to the CFT switch 130, to the emergency alert system182, or to the terminal server 134. An emergency alert system 190 can becoupled to the public network 112 to receive emergency alerts via thepublic network. Emergency alerts received at emergency alert system 184or at emergency alert system 190 can be communicated to the emergencyalert system 182 for further processing.

FIG. 1 further illustrates that the operations and management tier 108can include an operations and management tier (OMT) switch 160 thatconducts communication between the operations and management tier 108and the public network 112. In the embodiment illustrated by FIG. 1, theOMT switch 160 is coupled to a TV2 server 162. Additionally, the OMTswitch 160 can be coupled to an OSS/BSS server 164 and to a simplenetwork management protocol (SNMP) monitor 186 that monitors networkdevices within or coupled to the IPTV system 100. In a particularembodiment, the OMT switch 160 can communicate with the AQT switch 152via the public network 112.

In an illustrative embodiment, the live acquisition server 154 cantransmit content to the AQT switch 152, and the AQT switch 152, in turn,can transmit the content to the OMT switch 160 via the public network112. In this embodiment, the OMT switch 160 can transmit the content tothe TV2 server 162 for display to users accessing the user interface atthe TV2 server 162. For example, a user can access the TV2 server 162using a personal computer 168 coupled to the public network 112.

In a particular illustrative embodiment, received emergency alert can bea weather alert, a civil defense alert, an Amber alert, a Presidentialalert, or any other emergency alert. In a particular embodiment, theemergency alert can include information identifying one or moregeometric shapes or geographic indicators, as discussed further herein.The emergency alert can also include information identifying theemergency, such as the type of emergency, a degree of urgency associatedwith the emergency, safety precaution instructions, other emergencyalert information, or any combination thereof. Operation of theemergency alert system 182 will be better understood with reference toFIG. 2

FIG. 2 illustrates a specific embodiment of a system corresponding to aportion of the system of FIG. 1. FIG. 2 illustrates service provideequipment that includes an emergency alert processing system 232illustrating a specific embodiment of a portion of the emergency alertsystem 182 of FIG. 1, an IPTV access network 226 that corresponds to theaccess network 166 of FIG. 1, and customer premises equipment includingnetwork access module 228, set-top box 202, general purpose computer229, display device 212, and a remote control 230.

Emergency alert processing system 232 includes a set of emergency alertprocessing modules including an emergency alert detect module 236, animage generation module 238, a destination identification module 240,and an alert notification/control module 242.

Emergency alert detect module 236 monitors received information todetermine when an emergency alert is received at the service providerequipment, for example, from one of the alert systems 184 and 190illustrated at FIG. 1. A received emergency alert includes informationidentifying the emergency and information identifying a map location towhich the identified emergency is relevant, also referred to herein asthe affected area. The information identifying the affected area caninclude one or more primitive shapes, political regions, physicalfeatures, the like, and combinations thereof.

A primitive shape identifying a map location will be understood to bequalitatively different types of shape features that can be combinedinto an overall shape. Examples of primitive shapes include: straightedges; vertices; simple curves with no points of inflection (curve);complex curves with multiple points of inflection; and shapes havingclosed contours formed using other shapes, such as straight edges,vertices, simple curves, and complex curves. Simple shapes identifyingmap locations are associated with physical map locations using one ormore latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates, and physical features.

Political regions show map locations based on political boundaries.Examples of political boundaries include boundaries for cities,counties, states, countries, and the like. Physical features such asmountains, rivers, lakes, roads, railroad tracks, buildings, and thelike, are shown at their corresponding physical map locations.

The image generation module 238 of the emergency alert processingmodules 235 generates information representing a map of the affectedarea that is to be displayed at a display device of the customerpremises equipment. In one embodiment the image generation module 238 isa video generation module that generates a video stream illustrating amap that identifies the affected area. The information representing amap of the affected area can be a video stream representing renderablevideo data that can be accessed by a display engine of the customerpremises equipment for display. For example, the image processing modulecan compress the video stream in an MPEG standard. The video stream caninclude information to display images that are based upon the primitiveshape information identifying the affected area. Alternatively,information representing the map generated by the image generationmodule 238 can include information representing a still image of a mapthat is to be processed at the customer premises equipment to form avideo image that can be displayed by a display engine, whereby theprimitive shapes received in the emergency alert, can be included in theinformation describing the still image of the map.

The illustrated emergency alert processing system 232 includes adestination identification module 240 to identify customer premisesequipment that is located within an affected area. For example, theemergency alert processing module 236 receives the emergency alertidentifying the affected area and based upon the information identifyingthe affected area, the destination identification module 240 willidentify specific customer premises equipment located within theaffected area, such as the customer premises that includes networkaccess module 114 (FIG. 1) and the customer premises location thatincludes network access module 122. Alternatively, the destinationidentification module 240 can generally identify a group of customerpremises, such as all customer premises equipment within a service area.When the emergency alert information identifying the affected areaincludes primitive shapes associated with map locations, a geographicmapping module 2401 is used to determine which specific customerpremises equipment locations are within a boundary defined by theseprimitive shapes, or which service areas are at least partially withinthe area defined by the boundary of the primitive shapes. Alternatively,a location code module 2402 can be used to correlate various customerpremises equipment locations to location indicators received as part ofthe emergency alert. For example, a code corresponding to a specificpolitical region can be used to determine which specific customerpremises equipment locations are within, or partially within, anaffected area based upon the code.

In response to the emergency alert detect module 236 determining thatreceiving an emergency alert, and the destination identification moduledetermining which customer premises equipment affected by the emergency,an alert notification module 242 of the emergency alert processingsystem 232 transmits an emergency alert notification message to switch230, which corresponds to switch 130 of FIG. 1, for transmission. Thetransmitted emergency alert notification message is for receipt atcustomer premises equipment. In one embodiment, the emergency alertnotification message sent to the customer premises equipment includesuser selectable information to generate a user selectable display fieldat a display device of the customer premises equipment that whenselected will cause a specific action to be performed. For example, theuser selectable information can be used by the set-top box of thecustomer premises equipment to generate a user selectable field, such asa button or highlighted text, to be displayed at a display device of thecustomer premises equipment. In response to a user activating theselectable display field, e.g. selecting the selectable display field, adefined action is performed at the customer premises equipment. Thedefined action can be specified by the user selectable informationreceived from the service provider equipment, or by information definedat the customer premises equipment. For example, activating theselectable display field can result in the customer premises equipmentdisplaying a video stream, either as primary video or as overlay videothat includes the information representing the map of the affected area.Display of the video stream, in response to activating the selectablefield, can occur as a result of the customer premises equipment sendinga request to the service provider equipment for the video streaminformation, or as a result of the customer premises equipmentprocessing a video stream currently being received.

As used herein, primary video is intended to mean video containingcontent intended to be displayed at a display device as a primary sourceof information. For example, primary video can be video associated witha real-time content broadcast, such as a regularly scheduled program ora VoD program, or the video can be associated with content beingaccessed from the customer premises equipment itself, such as playing aDVD or other stored content. The primary video is generally displayed atthe request of a user. By contrast, overlay video is intended to fordisplay along with primary video at a display device. For example, theprimary video can be a movie being displayed at the display device alongwith overlay video, which, for example, can be displayed at a bottomportion of a the primary video.

The customer premises equipment of FIG. 2 includes a set-top box 202,general purpose computer 229, display device 212, and a remote control230. The set-top box device 202 includes a STB processor 204 and memorydevice modules 208 accessible to the STB processor 204. The STBprocessor 204 can communicate with the IPTV access network 226, via thenetwork interface 206. In a particular embodiment, network access module228 can facilitate communication between the network interface 206 andthe IPTV access network 226. The network access module 228 can include arouter, a local area network device, a modem, such as a digitalsubscriber line (DSL) modem, any other suitable device for facilitatingcommunication between the network interface 206 of the set-top boxdevice 202 and the IPTV access network 226, or any combination thereof.Further, the STB 202 can communicate video content to a display device212 via a display interface 210. In addition, the STB processor 204 canreceive commands from a remote control device 230 via a remote interface216.

Modules 206 pertaining to the processing of emergency alerts areillustrated to include an alert receipt module 218 that determines whenan emergency alert has been received, an overlay module 220 tofacilitate combining overlay video and primary video, and an actionexecute module 224. The overlay video can be received as a video streamidentified as an overlay video stream, or as other image informationidentified as an image that when received at the customer premisesequipment is converted into a overlay video stream before beingprocessed by the overlay module 220 for display as an overlay videoimage.

In one embodiment, the emergency alert processing system 232 will onlysend relevant emergency alert information to the customer premisesequipment, whereby the emergency receipt module 218 will detect allreceived emergency alert notifications as relevant and process them.Alternatively, the emergency receipt module 218 is responsible fordetermining if emergency alert messages that are broadcast by theservice provide equipment are relevant to its location, e.g., determinewhether the STB 202 is within the affected area.

Modules 206 further include an overlay module 220 that is configured tocombine an overlay a video stream with a primary video stream. Theoverlay video can be received as a video stream identified as an overlayvideo stream, or as other image information identified as an image thatwhen received at the customer premises equipment is converted into aoverlay video stream before being processed by the overlay module 220for display as an overlay video image.

The modules 206 include an action execute module 224 that is configuredto monitor user actions at set-top box 202. For example, the actionexecute module 224 can determine when a selectable field emergency alertdisplayed at the display device has been selected by the user, and inresponse perform a defined action based upon the selection of theselectable field. As previously discussed, both the selectable field andthe define action can be received from the service provider equipment aspart of the emergency alert notification message. For example, theselectable field can be displayed as part of a video stream that alsodisplays a small map to be overlaid at the bottom of a display device,where the map illustrates the area affected by the emergency alert andthe selectable field indicates that more information is available.Selection of the selectable field by the user causes the action executemodule 224 to perform a defined task associated with the selectablefield. For example, the defined task can cause the STB 202 to change achannel to display a video stream illustrating a more detailed view ofthe affected area, to display a live weather report, or otherinformation. Operation of the above emergency alert system of FIGS. 1and 2 will be better understood with respect to the methods illustratedat FIGS. 3-9.

FIG. 3 includes a flow diagram illustrating a method in accordance withthe present disclosure. At node 311 a video stream is transmitted fromservice provider equipment for display at a customer premises displaydevice. For example, in response to a user action at the customerpremises equipment requesting primary multimedia content, such as aregularly scheduled program, a video stream associated with therequested program will be transmitted from the service providerequipment for display at a display device of the customer premisesprovider equipment. For example, referring to FIG. 2, the selection by auser at the customer premises equipment can occur through the use ofremote 230 whereby the action execute module 224 would send a request tothe client facing tier 102 (FIG. 1) over the IPTV access network 228,which is analogous to the private network 10 illustrated at FIG. 1,requesting specific primary content. As a result, the service providerequipment illustrated at FIG. 1 will transmit multimedia information,including a video stream, associated with the requested primary contentprogram to the customer premises equipment.

At node 312, an emergency alert is received at the service providerequipment. For example, referring to FIG. 2, the emergency alert detectmodule 236 can receive an emergency alert from alert system 184 or alertsystem 190. As previously described, the emergency alert includesinformation identifying an emergency and information identifying anaffected area, where the emergency is relevant to the affected area. Theinformation identifying the affected area can be transmitted using astandardized protocol, such as the Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) andthe Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) protocol as adopted by theFederal Communications Commission as its weather radio service. Thetransmitted information can include Federal Information ProcessingStandards (FIPS) Codes that correspond to political regions, such ascounty and city boundaries. In addition, the emergency alert includesinformation identifying one or more primitive shapes corresponding tospecific map locations. For example, a primitive shape, such as aparallelogram, circle, and the like, can be identified along withspecific location information, such as latitudinal and longitudinalcoordinates, that correlates a geographic area corresponding to thegeometric primitive.

The table of FIG. 4 represents, in tabular form, specific informationthat can be received as part of an emergency alert. The referencenumbers 501-505 and 511-518 in the first column represent informationidentifying specific political regions, such as cities and counties,respectively. The reference numbers 521-523 in second column representinformation identifying specific primitive shapes that correspond to maplocations in the same general region as the political regions identifiedat the first column. For example, identifier 521 can representinformation, such as coordinates, or other information, representing aparallelogram, identifier 522 can represent a triangle, and identifier522 can represent a circle.

At node 313, information representing a map of the affected area isautomatically displayed at the service provider equipment based upon theinformation identifying the affected location. For example, a videostream representing a map displaying a border defined by the primitiveshapes as indicated at FIG. 4 can be generated by the image generationmodule 238 as previously described. FIG. 5 illustrates a map of theaffected area that includes the cities and counties identified at thefirst column of the table of FIG. 4, and a border defined by theprimitive shapes at the second column of the table of FIG. 4. Note thatthe parallelogram identified by indicator 521 of the table of FIG. 4 hasvertices 5211, 5212, 5213, and 5214, the triangle defined by indicator522 of the table of FIG. 4 has vertices 5231 and 5232, and the circledefined by indicator 522 of the table of FIG. 4 has a center location5221 and radius dimension 5222.

At node 314, information representing a map of the affected area istransmitted from the service provider equipment for receipt at customerpremises equipment. The information representing the map of the affectedarea can be integrated with a primary content program, e.g., the primarycontent video stream is modified at the service provider equipment toinclude an overlay map of the affected area, or the primary contentvideo can be transmitted as a separate video stream from an overlayvideo stream, where the two video streams can be combined at thecustomer premises equipment. Note that the overlay video can be sent tocustomer premises equipment for overlay with primary content generatedat the customer premises equipment, such as primary content associatedwith play back of a digital video recorder, or other VoD, through theset-top box 202 (not illustrated).

FIG. 6 illustrates a flow diagram illustrating a method in accordancewith a specific embodiment of the present disclosure. At node 321 avideo stream is transmitted from service provider equipment for displayat a customer premises display device in a similar manner as previouslydescribed at node 311. At node 322, an emergency alert is received atthe service provider equipment in a similar manner as previouslydescribed at node 312. At node 323 information representing a map of theaffected area is generated based upon the information identifying theaffected location in a similar manner as previously described at node313

At node 325, the service provider equipment, identifies customerpremises equipment within the affected area based upon the emergencyalert information. For example, as previously described, the destinationidentification module 240 can identify customer premises equipmentwithin an affected area. Such an identification can be made by knowingthe customer premises equipment is within a political region identifiedby information associated with the emergency alert, or by determiningthat the customer premises equipment is within a primitive shapeidentified by information associated with the emergency alert. Havingthe destination identification module 240 automatically, e.g., inresponse to receiving an emergency alert, identifies customer premisesequipment based upon geometric shapes allows for emergency alertinformation to be transmitted to specific customer premises equipmentwith greater resolution than prior methods of transmitting emergencyalerts.

At node 335, the information representing the map of the affected areais transmitted from the service provider equipment for receipt at thecustomer premises equipment identified at node 325.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flow diagram illustrating a method in accordancewith a specific embodiment of the present disclosure. At node 331 avideo stream is transmitted from service provider equipment for displayat a customer premises display device in a similar manner as previouslydescribed at node 311. At node 322, an emergency alert is received atthe service provider equipment in a similar manner as previouslydescribed at node 312.

At node 325, emergency alert information identifying the affectedlocation is re-transmitted from the service provider equipment to thecustomer premises equipment to allow the customer premises equipment todetermine locally if the emergency alert is relevant to its location.For example, the alert receipt module 218 can be configured to receivethe re-transmitted information to determine if an associated emergencyalert is relevant to its location. In response to determining whether analert is relevant, the alert receipt module can provide a request forfurther information back to the service provider equipment, or perform adefined action, such as receive a broadcast video stream for display asan overlay over the primary video stream.

At node 333 information representing a map of the affected area isgenerated based upon the information identifying the affected area in asimilar manner as previously described at node 313. At node 334 thegraphical geographic information is transmitted from the serviceprovider equipment for receipt at customer premises equipment in asimilar manner as previously described.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow diagram representing a specific embodimentwhereby user selectable information is also transmitted. The flow ofFIG. 8 can be integrated into the flows of FIGS. 3, 7 and 8, previouslydescribed. For example, the flow of FIG. 8 can be implemented prior totransmitting information as described at nodes 314, 324, and 334 asprevious described at FIGS. 3, 6, and 7, respectively.

At node 351, information is transmitted to the customer premisesequipment from the service provider equipment that provides for thecustomer premises equipment to generate a user selectable action on adisplay device of the customer premises equipment. At the customerpremises equipment, in response to the user selecting a field at thedisplay device corresponding to the user selectable action, the customerpremises equipment will execute a defined action. For example, thedefined action can result in the customer premises equipment providing areturn request to the service provider equipment for additionalinformation. For example, the customer premises equipment can requestthat the information representing the map may be transmitted to thecustomer premises equipment.

At node 352, the service provider equipment determines whether anindicator has been received from the customer premises equipment inresponse to the user selectable action being activated. In response tothe indicator being received, flow remains at node 352 for furthermonitoring. Otherwise, flow proceeds to a next node within a flow chart.Thus it will be appreciated that information representing the map can betransmitted in response to a request from customer premises equipment.

Referring to FIG. 9, an illustrative embodiment of a general computersystem is shown and is designated 900. The computer system 900 caninclude a set of instructions that can be executed to cause the computersystem 900 to perform any one or more of the methods or computer basedfunctions disclosed herein. The computer system 900, or any portionthereof, may operate as a standalone device or may be connected, e.g.,using a network, to other computer systems or peripheral devices,including customer premises equipment or service provider equipment, asshown in FIGS. 1-2.

In a networked deployment, the computer system may operate in thecapacity of an IPTV server, such as a video server or multicast alertserver, or a set-top box device. The computer system 900 can also beimplemented as or incorporated into various devices, such as anemergency alert system (EAS) receiver, a personal computer (PC), atablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personal digital assistant (PDA), amobile device, a palmtop computer, a laptop computer, a desktopcomputer, a communications device, a wireless telephone, a land-linetelephone, a control system, a camera, a scanner, a facsimile machine, aprinter, a pager, a personal trusted device, a web appliance, a networkrouter, switch or bridge, or any other machine capable of executing aset of instructions (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to betaken by that machine. In a particular embodiment, the computer system900 can be implemented using electronic devices that provide voice,video or data communication.

As illustrated in FIG. 9, the computer system 900 may include aprocessor 902, e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), agraphics-processing unit (GPU), other processing units, and combinationsthereof. Moreover, the computer system 900 can include a main memory904, which can be dynamic memory, and a static memory 906 that cancommunicate with each other via a bus 908. As shown, the computer system900 may further include a display device 910, such as a liquid crystaldisplay (LCD), an organic light emitting diode (OLED), a flat paneldisplay, a solid state display, a cathode ray tube (CRT), the like, andcombinations thereof. Additionally, the computer system 900 may includean input device 912, such as a keyboard, and a cursor control device914, such as a mouse. Further, the computer system 900 can include awireless input device 919, e.g., a remote control device. The computersystem 900 can also include a disk drive unit 916, a signal generationdevice 918, such as a speaker or remote control, and a network interfacedevice 920.

In a particular embodiment, as depicted in FIG. 9, the disk drive unit916 may include a computer-readable medium 922 in which one or more setsof instructions 924, e.g. software, can be embedded. Further, theinstructions 924 may embody one or more of the methods or logic asdescribed herein. In a particular embodiment, the instructions 924 mayreside completely, or at least partially, within the main memory 904,the static memory 906, and/or within the processor 902 during executionby the computer system 900. The main memory 904 and the processor 902also may include computer-readable media.

In an alternative embodiment, dedicated hardware implementations, suchas application specific integrated circuits, programmable logic arraysand other hardware devices, can be constructed to implement one or moreof the methods described herein. Applications that may include theapparatus and systems of various embodiments can broadly include avariety of electronic and computer systems. One or more embodimentsdescribed herein may implement functions using two or more specificinterconnected hardware modules or devices with related control and datasignals that can be communicated between and through the modules, or asportions of an application-specific integrated circuit. Accordingly, thepresent system encompasses software, firmware, and hardwareimplementations.

In accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure, themethods described herein may be implemented by software programsexecutable by a computer system. Further, implementations can includedistributed processing, component/object distributed processing, andparallel processing. Alternatively, virtual computer system processingcan be constructed to implement one or more of the methods orfunctionality as described herein.

The present disclosure contemplates a computer-readable medium thatincludes instructions 924 or receives and executes instructions 924responsive to a propagated signal, so that a device connected to anetwork 926 can communicate voice, video or data over the network 926.Further, the instructions 924 may be transmitted or received over thenetwork 926 via the network interface device 920.

While the computer-readable medium is shown to be a single medium, theterm “computer-readable medium” includes a single medium or multiplemedia, such as a centralized or distributed database, and/or associatedcaches and servers that store one or more sets of instructions. The term“computer-readable medium” shall also include any medium that is capableof storing, instructions for execution by a processor or that cause acomputer system to perform any one or more of the methods or operationsdisclosed herein.

In a particular embodiment, the computer-readable medium can include asolid-state memory such as a memory card or other package that housesone or more non-volatile read-only memories. Further, thecomputer-readable medium can be a volatile or non-volatile memory; or are-writable or a one-time writeable memory. Additionally, thecomputer-readable medium can include a magneto-optical or opticalmedium, such as a disk or tapes or other storage device to capturecarrier wave signals such as a signal communicated over a transmissionmedium. A digital file attachment to an e-mail or other self-containedinformation archive or set of archives may be considered a distributionmedium that is equivalent to a tangible storage medium. Accordingly, thedisclosure is considered to include any one or more of acomputer-readable medium or a distribution medium and other equivalentsand successor media, in which data or instructions may be stored.

Although the present specification describes components and functionsthat may be implemented in particular embodiments with reference toparticular standards and protocols, the invention is not limited to suchstandards and protocols. For example, standards for Internet and otherpacket switched network transmission (e.g., TCP/IP, UDP/IP, HTML, HTTP)represent examples of the state of the art. Such standards areperiodically superseded by faster or more efficient equivalents havingessentially the same functions. Accordingly, replacement standards andprotocols having the same or similar functions as those disclosed hereinare considered equivalents thereof.

The illustrations of the embodiments described herein are intended toprovide a general understanding of the structure of the variousembodiments. The illustrations are not intended to serve as a completedescription of all of the elements and features of apparatus and systemsthat utilize the structures or methods described herein. Many otherembodiments may be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewingthe disclosure. Other embodiments may be utilized and derived from thedisclosure, such that structural and logical substitutions and changesmay be made without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Forexample, in other embodiments, an emergency alert receiver may actuallybe associated with the emergency alert detect portion 236 of FIG. 3 asopposed, or in addition to receivers associated with the alert system184 of FIG. 1.

Additionally, the illustrations are merely representational and may notbe drawn to scale. Certain proportions within the illustrations may beexaggerated, while other proportions may be minimized. Accordingly, thedisclosure and the figures are to be regarded as illustrative ratherthan restrictive.

One or more embodiments of the disclosure may be referred to herein.Moreover, although specific embodiments have been illustrated anddescribed herein, it should be appreciated that any subsequentarrangement designed to achieve the same or similar purpose may besubstituted for the specific embodiments shown. This disclosure isintended to cover any and all subsequent adaptations or variations ofvarious embodiments. Combinations of the above embodiments, and otherembodiments not specifically described herein, will be apparent to thoseof skill in the art upon reviewing the description.

The foregoing Detailed Description, various features may be groupedtogether or described in a single embodiment for the purpose ofstreamlining the disclosure. This disclosure is not to be interpreted asreflecting an intention that the claimed embodiments require morefeatures than are expressly recited in each claim. Rather, as thefollowing claims reflect, inventive subject matter may be directed toless than all of the features of any of the disclosed embodiments. Thus,the following claims are incorporated into the Detailed Description,with each claim standing on its own as defining separately claimedsubject matter.

The above-disclosed subject matter is to be considered illustrative, andnot restrictive, and the appended claims are intended to cover all suchmodifications, enhancements, and other embodiments, which fall withinthe true spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, to the maximumextent allowed by law, the scope of the present invention is to bedetermined by the broadest permissible interpretation of the followingclaims and their equivalents, and shall not be restricted or limited bythe foregoing detailed description.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving an emergency alertat service provider equipment including a processor, wherein theemergency alert comprises information identifying an emergency andinformation identifying an affected area, wherein the informationidentifying the affected area comprises a code identifying a politicalregion and information identifying a primitive shape corresponding tothe affected area, and wherein the emergency is relevant to the affectedarea; generating, by the service provider equipment, first informationrepresenting a map of the affected area identified in the emergencyalert to be displayed at a display device of customer premisesequipment; authenticating, by the service provider equipment, thecustomer premises equipment; transmitting, by the service providerequipment, a first video stream comprising the first information, auser-selectable display field and a definition of an action associatedwith the user-selectable display field from the service providerequipment to the customer premises equipment for presentation at a firstchannel of the display device, wherein the customer premises equipmentis operable to determine if the first information is relevant to alocation of the customer premises equipment and to condition thepresentation of the first information representing the map of theaffected area together with the user-selectable display field at adisplay area of the display device responsive to the determination ifthe first information is relevant to the location, wherein thedefinition of the action comprises a task performable by the customerpremises equipment; receiving, by the service provider equipment, fromthe customer premises equipment an indication of a selection of theuser-selectable display field and a request for a second video streamassociated with the emergency and the affected area, wherein theselection of the user-selectable display field causes the customerpremises equipment to perform the action to execute the task based onthe definition; and responsive to the indication of the selection of theuser-selectable display field and the request, transmitting, by theservice provider equipment, to the customer premises equipment thesecond video stream associated with the emergency and the affected areafor presentation at a second channel of the display device withoutdisplaying, at the second channel, video content already being receivedby the customer premises equipment, wherein the first information is tobe displayed as overlay video with the first video stream, wherein theoverlay video provides a map of the affected area, wherein the mapoccupies a portion of the display area of the display device, andwherein the map is to be displayed together with the user-selectabledisplay field indicating that more information is available in relationto the emergency, and wherein the task comprises changing a channel at aset-top box of the customer premises equipment to display a video streamillustrating a more detailed view of the affected area.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the first video stream is transmitted as a multicastpacket stream from the service provider equipment to the customerpremises equipment.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first videostream is transmitted in response to identifying the customer premisesequipment based upon the code identifying the political region and theinformation identifying the primitive shape corresponding to theaffected area.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising, capturingthe emergency alert at the service provider equipment from a source,wherein the user-selectable display field comprises one of a button orhighlighted text.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the customerpremises equipment comprises equipment selected from the groupconsisting of network access modules, switches, routers and combinationsthereof.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising, identifying thecustomer premises equipment based upon the code identifying thepolitical region and the information identifying the primitive shapecorresponding to the affected area.
 7. The method of claim 1, whereinthe first information represents information that is displayable by adisplay engine of the customer premises equipment, wherein the firstinformation includes a map of the affected area, wherein theuser-selectable display field indicates additional information isavailable.
 8. A device comprising: a memory to store executableinstructions; and a controller coupled to the memory, wherein thecontroller, responsive to executing the instructions, facilitiesperformance of operations comprising: determining if an emergency alertmessage has been received, the emergency alert message includinginformation identifying an affected area affected by an emergency;generating first information representing a map of the affected areaaccording to the information of the emergency alert message identifyingthe affected area, wherein the information identifying the affected areacomprises a code identifying a political region and a primitive shapecorresponding to the affected area; authenticating customer premisesequipment; providing a first data stream to the customer premisesequipment, wherein the first data stream includes the first informationrepresenting the map of the affected area and includes a user-selectabledisplay field and a definition of an action associated with theuser-selectable display field and wherein the customer premisesequipment is operable to present the first data stream at a firsttelevision channel portraying the map of the affected area together withthe user-selectable display field, wherein the definition of the actioncomprises a task performable by the customer premises equipment;receiving from the customer premises equipment an indication of aselection of the user-selectable display field and a request for asecond data stream associated with the emergency and the affected area,wherein the selection of the user-selectable display field causes thecustomer premises equipment to perform the action to execute the taskbased on the definition; and responsive to the receiving of theindication of the selection of the user-selectable display field and therequest, providing to the customer premises equipment a second datastream associated with the emergency and the affected area, wherein thecustomer premises equipment is operable to present the second datastream on a second television channel, wherein the first information isto be displayed as overlay video with the first data stream, wherein theoverlay video provides a map of the affected area, wherein the mapoccupies a portion of a display area of the customer premises, andwherein the map is to be displayed together with the user-selectabledisplay field indicating that more information is available in relationto the emergency, and wherein the task comprises changing a channel at aset-top box of the customer premises equipment to display content ofanother data stream illustrating a more detailed view of the affectedarea.
 9. The device of claim 8, wherein the map of the affected area isa primary video.
 10. The device of claim 8, wherein the customerpremises equipment comprises equipment selected from the groupconsisting of network access modules, switches, routers and combinationsthereof.
 11. The device of claim 8, wherein the operations furthercomprise, identifying the customer premises equipment based upon thecode identifying the political region and the primitive shapecorresponding to the affected area.
 12. The device of claim 11, whereinthe operations further comprise, transmitting a notification request tothe customer premises equipment in response to identifying the customerpremises equipment.
 13. The device of claim 12, wherein the notificationrequest includes the user-selectable display field.
 14. The device ofclaim 8, wherein the user-selectable display field indicates additionalinformation is available.
 15. A machine-readable storage devicecomprising a plurality of instructions, which responsive to beingexecuted by a processor, cause the processor to perform operationscomprising: generating first information representing a map of anaffected area to be displayed based upon receiving emergency alertinformation identifying the affected area, wherein the informationidentifying the affected area comprises a code identifying a politicalregion and a primitive shape corresponding to the affected area;authenticating customer premises equipment; transmitting a first datastream including the first information, a user-selectable display fieldand a definition of an action associated with the user-selectabledisplay field to customer premises equipment for presentation as a firsttelevision channel of a display device portraying the map of theaffected area together with the user-selectable display field, whereinthe definition of the action comprises a task performable by thecustomer premises equipment; receiving from the customer premisesequipment an indication of a selection of the user-selectable displayfield and a request for a second video stream associated with theemergency and the affected area, wherein the selection of theuser-selectable display field causes the customer premises equipment toperform the action to execute the task based on the definition; andresponsive to the receiving of the indication of the selection of theuser-selectable display field and the request, providing to the customerpremises equipment a second data stream associated with the emergencyand the affected area, wherein the first information is presentable at adisplay as an overlay, wherein the overlay provides a map of theaffected area, wherein the map occupies a portion of the display, andwherein the map is presentable at the display together with theuser-selectable display field indicating that more information isavailable in relation to the emergency, and wherein the task compriseschanging a channel at the customer premises equipment to present at thedisplay a more detailed view of the affected area.
 16. Themachine-readable storage device of claim 15, wherein the operationsfurther comprise, receiving the first information representing the mapto determine a set of customer premises equipment that includes thecustomer premises equipment.
 17. The machine-readable storage device ofclaim 16, wherein the operations further comprise, transmitting anotification request to the set of customer premises equipment inresponse to a destination identification module determining the customerpremises equipment, wherein the customer premises equipment comprisesequipment selected from the group consisting of network access modules,switches, routers and combinations thereof.
 18. The machine-readablestorage device of claim 15, wherein the operations further comprise,identifying the customer premises equipment based upon the codeidentifying the political region and the primitive shape correspondingto the affected area.
 19. The machine-readable storage device of claim15, wherein the user-selectable display field indicates additionalinformation is available.
 20. The machine-readable storage device ofclaim 15, wherein the operations further comprise, capturing theemergency alert from a source, wherein the user-selectable display fieldcomprises one of a button or highlighted text.